Towards a Food Web Perspective on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning
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Plant Species Richness and Species Area Relationships in a Florida Sandhill Monica Ruth Downer University of South Florida, [email protected]
University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School January 2012 Plant Species Richness and Species Area Relationships in a Florida Sandhill Monica Ruth Downer University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, Biology Commons, and the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons Scholar Commons Citation Downer, Monica Ruth, "Plant Species Richness and Species Area Relationships in a Florida Sandhill" (2012). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4030 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Plant Species Richness and Species Area Relationships in a Florida Sandhill Community by Monica Ruth Downer A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment Of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Department of Biology College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Gordon A. Fox, Ph.D. Co-Major Professor: Earl D. McCoy, Ph.D. Co-Major Professor: Frederick B. Essig, Ph.D. Date of Approval: March 27, 2012 Keywords: Species area curve, burn regime, rank occurrence, heterogeneity, autocorrelation Copyright © 2012, Monica Ruth Downer ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to offer special thanks to my major professor, Dr. Gordon A. Fox, for his patience, guidance and many hours devoted to helping me in this endeavor. I would like to thank my committee, Dr. -
Species Richness, Species–Area Curves and Simpson's Paradox
Evolutionary Ecology Research, 2000, 2: 791–802 Species richness, species–area curves and Simpson’s paradox Samuel M. Scheiner,1* Stephen B. Cox,2 Michael Willig,2 Gary G. Mittelbach,3 Craig Osenberg4 and Michael Kaspari5 1Department of Life Sciences (2352), Arizona State University West, P.O. Box 37100, Phoenix, AZ 85069, 2Program in Ecology and Conservation Biology, Department of Biological Sciences and The Museum, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, 3W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, 3700 E. Gull Lake Drive, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI 49060, 4Department of Zoology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 and 5Department of Zoology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA ABSTRACT A key issue in ecology is how patterns of species diversity differ as a function of scale. The scaling function is the species–area curve. The form of the species–area curve results from patterns of environmental heterogeneity and species dispersal, and may be system-specific. A central concern is how, for a given set of species, the species–area curve varies with respect to a third variable, such as latitude or productivity. Critical is whether the relationship is scale-invariant (i.e. the species–area curves for different levels of the third variable are parallel), rank-invariant (i.e. the curves are non-parallel, but non-crossing within the scales of interest) or neither, in which case the qualitative relationship is scale-dependent. This recognition is critical for the development and testing of theories explaining patterns of species richness because different theories have mechanistic bases at different scales of action. -
European Gradients of Resilience in the Face of Climate Extremes
EUROPEAN GRADIENTS OF RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE EXTREMES POLICY BRIEF Field site in Belgium with rainout shelters deployed in 2013 ©Sigi Berwaers This policy brief is based on the results Extreme weather events and the presence of invasive species can act as of the BiodivERsA-funded project pressures threatening biodiversity, resilience and ecosystem services of semi- ‘SIGNAL’ addressing the interaction of three major research areas, combined natural grasslands and drive them beyond thresholds of system integrity in ecology for the first time: biodiversity (tipping points and regime shifts). On the other hand, biodiversity itself may experiments, climate change research, and invasion research. The project made use buffer ecosystem functioning and services against change. Potential stabilising of coordinated experiments in different mechanisms include species richness, presence of key species such as legumes climates across Europe, thereby increasing and within-species diversity. These potential buffers can be promoted by the scope and relevance of the results. conservation management and policy adjustments. K EY POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS • Local biodiversity should be actively stimulated or preserved across European grasslands in order to increase the stability of ecosystem service provisioning, which is especially relevant as climate extremes are expected to become more frequent and intense. • Adjustment of mowing frequency and cutting height can help maintain or increase biodiversity. • More explicit consideration of within-species diversity is warranted, as this component of biodiversity can contribute to stabilising ecosystem functioning in the face of climate extremes. • Ecosystem responses to climate extremes of similar magnitude can vary significantly between climates and regions, suggesting that targeted policy requires tailor-made impact predictions. -
"Species Richness: Small Scale". In: Encyclopedia of Life Sciences (ELS)
Species Richness: Small Advanced article Scale Article Contents . Introduction Rebecca L Brown, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, Washington, USA . Factors that Affect Species Richness . Factors Affected by Species Richness Lee Anne Jacobs, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA . Conclusion Robert K Peet, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020488 Species richness, defined as the number of species per unit area, is perhaps the simplest measure of biodiversity. Understanding the factors that affect and are affected by small- scale species richness is fundamental to community ecology. Introduction diversity indices of Simpson and Shannon incorporate species abundances in addition to species richness and are The ability to measure biodiversity is critically important, intended to reflect the likelihood that two individuals taken given the soaring rates of species extinction and human at random are of the same species. However, they tend to alteration of natural habitats. Perhaps the simplest and de-emphasize uncommon species. most frequently used measure of biological diversity is Species richness measures are typically separated into species richness, the number of species per unit area. A vast measures of a, b and g diversity (Whittaker, 1972). a Di- amount of ecological research has been undertaken using versity (also referred to as local or site diversity) is nearly species richness as a measure to understand what affects, synonymous with small-scale species richness; it is meas- and what is affected by, biodiversity. At the small scale, ured at the local scale and consists of a count of species species richness is generally used as a measure of diversity within a relatively homogeneous area. -
Regional Neutrality Evolves Through Local Adaptive Niche Evolution
Regional neutrality evolves through local adaptive niche evolution Mathew A. Leibolda,1, Mark C. Urbanb, Luc De Meesterc, Christopher A. Klausmeierd,e,f, and Joost Vanoverbekec aDepartment of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611; bDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269; cDepartment of Biology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium; dKellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI 49060; eDepartment of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI 49060; and fProgram in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology & Behavior, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, MI 49060 Edited by Nils C. Stenseth, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, and approved December 11, 2018 (received for review May 22, 2018) Biodiversity in natural systems can be maintained either because Past theoretical work in this area suggests that, depending on niche differentiation among competitors facilitates stable coexis- assumptions, the effects of local adaptation can either cause com- tence or because equal fitness among neutral species allows for peting species to diverge (17) or converge (18–22) in niche traits, their long-term cooccurrence despite a slow drift toward extinc- facilitating niche partitioning or neutral cooccurrence of species, tion. Whereas the relative importance of these two ecological respectively. This research, however, neglects the regional scale mechanisms has been well-studied in the absence of evolution, the and the process by which communities assemble through re- role of local adaptive evolution in maintaining biological diversity peated colonization, extinction, and competition.Taking this through these processes is less clear. Here we study the contribu- more regional perspective, local adaptive evolution can generate tion of local adaptive evolution to coexistence in a landscape of evolution-mediated priority effects wherein early colonizers adapt to interconnected patches subject to disturbance. -
Species Richness and Evolutionary Niche Dynamics: a Spatial Pattern–Oriented Simulation Experiment
vol. 170, no. 4 the american naturalist october 2007 ൴ Species Richness and Evolutionary Niche Dynamics: A Spatial Pattern–Oriented Simulation Experiment Thiago Fernando L. V. B. Rangel,1,* Jose´ Alexandre F. Diniz-Filho,2,† and Robert K. Colwell1,‡ 1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269; 2. Departamento de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Cieˆncias As early as the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, nat- Biolo´gicas, Universidade Federal de Goia´s, CP 131, 74001-970 uralists described and documented what we today call geo- Goiaˆnia, Goiaˆnia, Brasil graphical gradients in taxon diversity (species richness), Submitted November 27, 2006; Accepted May 14, 2007; especially the general global pattern of increase in species Electronically published August 9, 2007 richness toward warm and wet tropical regions (Whittaker et al. 2001; Hawkins et al. 2003b; Willig et al. 2003; Hil- Online enhancements: appendixes. lebrand 2004). Initial hypotheses explaining this pattern were deduced solely by observing and describing nature and were based on nothing more rigorous than intuitive correspondence between climatic and biological patterns abstract: Evolutionary processes underlying spatial patterns in (Hawkins 2001). Surprisingly, even after 200 years of re- species richness remain largely unexplored, and correlative studies search in biogeography and ecology, the most common lack the theoretical basis to explain these patterns in evolutionary framework used in such investigations still relies on sta- terms. In this study, we develop a spatially explicit simulation tistical measurements of the concordance between the spa- model to evaluate, under a pattern-oriented modeling approach, whether evolutionary niche dynamics (the balance between niche tial patterns in species richness and multiple environmen- conservatism and niche evolution processes) can provide a parsi- tal factors. -
Resource Competition Shapes Biological Rhythms and Promotes Temporal Niche
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.22.055160; this version posted April 22, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY 4.0 International license. 1 2 3 Resource competition shapes biological rhythms and promotes temporal niche 4 differentiation in a community simulation 5 6 Resource competition, biological rhythms, and temporal niches 7 8 Vance Difan Gao1,2*, Sara Morley-Fletcher1,4, Stefania Maccari1,3,4, Martha Hotz Vitaterna2, Fred W. Turek2 9 10 1UMR 8576 Unité de Glycobiologie Structurale et Fonctionnelle, Campus Cité Scientifique, CNRS, University of 11 Lille, Lille, France 12 2 Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, United States of America 13 3Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, University Sapienza of Rome, Rome, Italy 14 4International Associated Laboratory (LIA) “Perinatal Stress and Neurodegenerative Diseases”: University of Lille, 15 Lille, France; CNRS-UMR 8576, Lille, France; Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy; IRCCS Neuromed, Pozzilli, 16 Italy 17 18 19 * Corresponding author 20 E-mail: [email protected] 21 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.22.055160; this version posted April 22, 2020. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY 4.0 International license. -
Interspecific Competition: • Lecture Summary: • Definition
BIOS 6150: Ecology Dr. Stephen Malcolm, Department of Biological Sciences • Week 5: Interspecific Competition: • Lecture summary: • Definition. Semibalanus balanoides • Examples. James P. Rowan, http://www.emature.com • Outcomes. • Lotka-Volterra model. Chthamalus stellatus Alan J. Southward, http://www.marlin.ac.uk/ BIOS 6150: Ecology - Dr. S. Malcolm. Week 5: Interspecific Competition Slide - 1 2. Interspecific Competition: • Like intraspecific competition, competition between species can be defined as: • “Competition is an interaction between individuals, brought about by a shared requirement for a resource in limited supply, and leading to a reduction in the survivorship, growth and/or reproduction of at least some of the competing individuals concerned” BIOS 6150: Ecology - Dr. S. Malcolm. Week 5: Interspecific Competition Slide - 2 3. Interspecific competition between 2 barnacle species (Fig. 8.2 after Connell, 1961): “Click for pictures” BIOS 6150: Ecology - Dr. S. Malcolm. Week 5: Interspecific Competition Slide - 3 4. Gause's Paramecium species compete interspecifically (Fig. 8.3): BIOS 6150: Ecology - Dr. S. Malcolm. Week 5: Interspecific Competition Slide - 4 5. Tilman's diatoms exploitation/scramble (Fig. 8.5): BIOS 6150: Ecology - Dr. S. Malcolm. Week 5: Interspecific Competition Slide - 5 6. A caveat: “The ghost of competition past:” • Lack observed 5 tit species in a single British wood: • 4 weighed 9.3-11.4g and 1 weighed 20.0g. • All have short beaks and hunt for insect food on leaves & twigs + seeds in winter. • Concluded that they coexisted because they exploited slightly different resources in slightly different ways. • But is this a justifiable explanation? Did species change or were species eliminated? • Connell (1980) emphasized that current patterns may be the product of past evolutionary responses to competition - “the ghost of competition past” ! BIOS 6150: Ecology - Dr. -
Effects of a Low Head Dam on a Dominant Detritivore and Detrital Processing in a Headwater Stream
EFFECTS OF A LOW HEAD DAM ON A DOMINANT DETRITIVORE AND DETRITAL PROCESSING IN A HEADWATER STREAM. A Thesis by BRETT MATTHEW TORNWALL Submitted to the Graduate School Appalachian State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE May 2011 Department of Biology EFFECTS OF A LOW HEAD DAM ON A DOMINANT DETRITIVORE AND DETRITAL PROCESSING IN A HEADWATER STREAM. A Thesis By BRETT MATTHEW TORNWALL May 2011 APPROVED BY: ____________________________________ Robert Creed Chairperson, Thesis Committee ____________________________________ Michael Gangloff Member, Thesis Committee ____________________________________ Michael Madritch Member, Thesis Committee ____________________________________ Steven Seagle Chairperson, Department of Biology ____________________________________ Edelma D. Huntley Dean, Research and Graduate Studies Copyright by Brett Matthew Tornwall 2011 All Rights Reserved FOREWARD The research detailed in this thesis will be submitted to Oikos, an international peer-reviewed journal owned by John Wiley and Sons Inc. and published by the John Wiley and Sons Inc. Press. The thesis has been prepared according to the guidelines of this journal. ABSTRACT EFFECTS OF A LOW HEAD DAM ON A DOMINANT DETRITIVORE AND DETRITAL PROCESSING IN A HEADWATER STREAM. (May 2011) Brett Matthew Tornwall, B.S., University of Florida M.S., Appalachian State University Chairperson: Robert Creed The caddisfly Pycnopsyche gentilis is a dominant detritivore in southern Appalachian streams. A dam on Sims Creek selectively removes P. gentilis from downstream reaches. I evaluated the breakdown of yellow birch leaves in the presence and absence of P. gentilis using a leaf pack breakdown experiment. Leaf packs were placed in reaches above the dam where P. gentilis is present and below the dam where it is essentially absent. -
Coral Reef Food Web ×
This website would like to remind you: Your browser (Apple Safari 4) is out of date. Update your browser for more × security, comfort and the best experience on this site. Illustration MEDIA SPOTLIGHT Coral Reef Food Web Journey Through the Trophic Levels of a Food Web For the complete illustrations with media resources, visit: http://education.nationalgeographic.com/media/coral-reef-food-web/ A food web consists of all the food chains in a single ecosystem. Each living thing in an ecosystem is part of multiple food chains. Each food chain is one possible path that energy and nutrients may take as they move through the ecosystem. Not all energy is transferred from one trophic level to another. Energy is used by organisms at each trophic level, meaning that only part of the energy available at one trophic level is passed on to the next level. All of the interconnected and overlapping food chains in an ecosystem make up a food web. Similarly, a single organism can serve more than one role in a food web. For example, a queen conch can be both a consumer and a detritivore, or decomposer. Food webs consist of different organism groupings called trophic levels. In this example of a coral reef, there are producers, consumers, and decomposers. Producers make up the first trophic level. A producer, or autotroph, is an organism that can produce its own energy and nutrients, usually through photosynthesis or chemosynthesis. Consumers are organisms that depend on producers or other consumers to get their food, energy, and nutrition. There are many different types of consumers. -
Is Ecological Succession Predictable?
Is ecological succession predictable? Commissioned by Prof. dr. P. Opdam; Kennisbasis Thema 1. Project Ecosystem Predictability, Projectnr. 232317. 2 Alterra-Report 1277 Is ecological succession predictable? Theory and applications Koen Kramer Bert Brinkman Loek Kuiters Piet Verdonschot Alterra-Report 1277 Alterra, Wageningen, 2005 ABSTRACT Koen Kramer, Bert Brinkman, Loek Kuiters, Piet Verdonschot, 2005. Is ecological succession predictable? Theory and applications. Wageningen, Alterra, Alterra-Report 1277. 80 blz.; 6 figs.; 0 tables.; 197 refs. A literature study is presented on the predictability of ecological succession. Both equilibrium and nonequilibrium theories are discussed in relation to competition between, and co-existence of species. The consequences for conservation management are outlined and a research agenda is proposed focusing on a nonequilibrium view of ecosystem functioning. Applications are presented for freshwater-; marine-; dune- and forest ecosystems. Keywords: conservation management; competition; species co-existence; disturbance; ecological succession; equilibrium; nonequilibrium ISSN 1566-7197 This report can be ordered by paying € 15,- to bank account number 36 70 54 612 by name of Alterra Wageningen, IBAN number NL 83 RABO 036 70 54 612, Swift number RABO2u nl. Please refer to Alterra-Report 1277. This amount is including tax (where applicable) and handling costs. © 2005 Alterra P.O. Box 47; 6700 AA Wageningen; The Netherlands Phone: + 31 317 474700; fax: +31 317 419000; e-mail: [email protected] No part of this publication may be reproduced or published in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the written permission of Alterra. Alterra assumes no liability for any losses resulting from the use of the research results or recommendations in this report. -
Nature's Garbage Collectors
R3 Nature’s Garbage Collectors You’ve already learned about producers, herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. Take a moment to think or share with a partner: what’s the difference between those types of organisms? You know about carnivores, which are animals that eat other animals. An example is the sea otter. You’ve also learned about herbivores, which only eat plants. Green sea turtles are herbivores. And you’re very familiar with omnivores, animals that eat both animals and plants. You are probably an omnivore! You might already know about producers, too, which make their food from the sun. Plants and algae are examples of producers. Have you ever wondered what happens to all the waste that everything creates? As humans, when we eat, we create waste, like chicken bones and banana peels. Garbage collectors take this waste to landfills. And after our bodies have taken all the energy and vitamins we need from food, we defecate (poop) the leftovers that we can’t use. Our sewerage systems take care of this waste. But what happens in nature? Sea otters and sea turtles don’t have landfills or toilets. Where does their waste go? There are actually organisms in nature that take care of these leftovers and poop. How? Instead of eating fresh animals or plants, these organisms consume waste to get their nutrients. There are three types of these natural garbage collectors -- scavengers, detritivores, and decomposers. You’ve probably already met (and maybe even eaten) a few of them. Scavengers Scavengers are animals that eat dead, decaying animals and plants.